Heracles profits up

Heracles profits up
29 August 2003


Greek cement producer Heracles, majority-owned by France's Lafarge, said on Thursday group pre-tax profit grew 142 per cent to EURO 40m in the first half.  Group sales remained around previous year levels, reaching EURO 278m  Last year's first half earnings had been hurt by a EURO19.6m provision related to staff termination.  The group, which runs three cement plants in Greece with a total production capacity of 9.6Mt annually, is the country's largest producer, competing with Titan Cement  and Halyps. "Both sales and production volumes have recovered following the disruption caused by exceptionally bad weather conditions that prevailed in the first quarter throughout the country," the group said. Domestic cement sales volume rose 2.8 per cent to 2.74Mt with export volume at 1.47Mt. Published under Cement News